Sealant-containing tires such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-323875, where a sealant chamber at least partially defined by a liner is formed at an inner surface of a tread of a tire body so that punctures in the tread caused by nails etc. are automatically sealed by sealant contained within the sealant chamber so as to delay the leaking of air from the puncture, are well known.
With this related sealant-containing tire, when the liner is overlaid on the tire body prior to vulcanization molding, vulcanization molding is carried out with part of the contact surfaces of both the tire body and the liner, or parts of contact surfaces of liners, being applied with an anti-sticking agent such as talcum powder etc. When the tire body is then fastened through vulcanization to the tire body so as to form a single body, a sealant chamber is formed as a result of portions to which the anti-sticking agent has been applied remaining in an unfastened state. Other methods where, rather than using the anti-sticking agent, an anti-sticking sheet is sandwiched between the tire body and part of the liner contact surface or is sandwiched between parts of the contact surfaces of liners, are also well known.
However, applying an anti-sticking agent or sandwiching an anti-sticking sheet when overlaying a liner on a tire body prior to vulcanization molding in the tire manufacturing process causes both the number of processes and the cost to increase, and it would therefore be preferable to develop a sealant containing tire where a sealant chamber can be formed without using an anti-sticking agent or anti-sticking sheet.